Who Is Valerie Plame Wilson? Former CIA Agent Wants Trump Off Twitter

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson — an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump on social media — joined a chorus of voices online who are petitioning to have his Twitter account removed from the platform. But Wilson has taken her campaign a step further by crowd-funding for enough of a stake in the company to get him kicked off Twitter herself.

Wilson — on behalf of anti-nuclear weapons group Global Zero — started a GoFundMe campaign last week that hopes to raise a $1 billion to buy stake in the social media company. Wilson wrote on the campaign page that she hoped to raise enough money to purchase a controlling share of the social media company, which she said might afford her enough power to have the president removed from the platform.

“Donald Trump has done a lot of horrible things on Twitter,” the campaign reads. “From emboldening white supremacists to promoting violence against journalists, his tweets damage the country and put people in harm's way. But threatening actual nuclear war with North Korea takes it to a dangerous new level.”

The campaign added, “Twitter is a publicly traded company. Shares = power. This GoFundMe will fund the purchase of a controlling interest in Twitter. At the current market rate that would require over a billion dollars — but that's a small price to pay to take away Trump's most powerful megaphone and prevent a horrific nuclear war.”

The company had raised nearly $50,000 of its $1 billion goal as of Thursday afternoon after a week of campaigning. However, the Associated Press reported that as of Wednesday, a majority stake in the company would cost approximately $6 billion. While $1 billion would make her the company’s largest shareholder, the AP also noted that Wilson would “fall far short of gaining a controlling interest” in Twitter.

In the event that the campaign doesn’t raise enough money to buy a “significant stake” in Twitter, the campaign noted, proceeds raised would be donated to Global Zero.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the campaign in a statement that called the campaign “ridiculous.”

“Her ridiculous attempt to shut down [Trump’s] first amendment is the only clear violation and expression of hate and intolerance in this equation,” the statement said.

Wilson tweeted an apparent response to the claim on Twitter Wednesday.

“Lots of trolls yelling & screaming that #BuyTwitter #BanTrump campaign ‘suppresses free speech.’ They're wrong. Here's why: Free speech has limits,” she wrote. “Can't yell ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater to cause a stampede. Can't incite violence.”

She added, “1st Amendment only stops gov't interference w/ your speech. @Twitter isn't the gov't & this isn't a public square.”

Wilson resigned from the CIA in 2005 after working as an undercover operative until 2003. Her identity was leaked by associates of former President George W. Bush’s administration that year in apparent retribution for criticisms of the Bush administration made by her husband, Joseph Wilson.